John Ruiz vs. James Toney

John Ruiz vs. James Toney

Date	April 30, 2005
Venue	Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York
Title(s) on the line	WBA and IBA heavyweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer John Ruiz James Toney Nickname "The Quietman" "Lights Out" Hometown Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S. Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. Pre-fight record 41–5–1 (28 KO) 68–4–2 (43 KO) Age 33 years, 3 months 36 years, 8 months Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) Weight 241 lb (109 kg) 233 lb (106 kg) Style Orthodox Orthodox Recognition WBA Heavyweight Champion The Ring No. 2 Ranked Heavyweight [1] WBA/WBC No. 1 Ranked Heavyweight The Ring No. 4 Ranked Heavyweight IBA Heavyweight Champion Former 3-division world champion
Result
Originally a 12-round unanimous decision (116–111, 116-111, 115–112) for Toney; overturned to a no contest after he failed a drug test

John Ruiz vs. James Toney was a professional boxing match contested on April 30, 2005, for the WBA heavyweight championship.

Background

After Roy Jones, Jr. elected to return to fighting as a light heavyweight, an interim championship match was signed between former world champions Ruiz and Hasim Rahman. Ruiz won the fight, and after Jones decided not to return to the heavyweight division the WBA promoted him to full champion; Ruiz joined the list of fighters to have regained a piece of the heavyweight title after previously losing it, which at the time consisted of him, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Tim Witherspoon, Muhammad Ali, and Floyd Patterson.

Ruiz made two defenses of his championship, defeating Fres Oquendo and getting a very controversial unanimous decision over Andrew Golota where most observers had Golota winning. ^[2]

Toney, the former middleweight and super middleweight world champion, had been fighting in the cruiserweight division for some time when he faced off against previously unbeaten Vassiliy Jirov for the IBF cruiserweight championship. Toney knocked down the four-year reigning champion in the final round en route to a unanimous decision victory, taking a major world title in a third weight class. Shortly thereafter, Toney moved up to heavyweight and took on Holyfield his debut in the class, scoring a knockdown in the ninth round and forcing Holyfield's corner to stop the fight. After trying to pursue a fight with Jones, who had handed Toney his first professional defeat, he elected instead to fight Ruiz after taking a tuneup against Rydell Booker, which he won in a lopsided unanimous decision. ^{[3] [4]}

Going in to the fight both the WBA & WBC ranked Toney as their number 1 contender, with the IBF ranking him 3rd. ^[5]

Toney was looking to join Jones and Bob Fitzsimmons as the only fighters to hold world championships at middleweight and heavyweight; he would be the first to do this without winning a major world title at light heavyweight first.

The fight

Toney would control most of fight, knocking Ruiz down in the 7th round on route to a unanimous decision win, with scores of 116–111, 116-111 and 115–112. ^[6] HBO's Harold Lederman also had the bout scored as 116–111 to Toney. Ruiz announced after the fight that he would be retiring.

Aftermath

Several days after the fight, it was revealed that in a post-fight urine test, the anabolic steroid nandrolone was detected in Toney's sample. The WBA responded by vacating the result of the fight, returning the title to Ruiz, and forbidding Toney to fight for its world championship for a minimum of two years. ^[7] In addition, Toney drew a suspension of 90 days from the New York State Athletic Commission and a fine of $10,000.

Reinstated as champion, Ruiz rescinded his retirement. However, he did not stay champion for very much longer as in his next defense against Nikolai Valuev, Ruiz lost a majority decision. He would fight twice more in his career for the WBA world championship, losing a unanimous decision in a rematch with Valuev and getting knocked out by David Haye in what would prove to be his final fight in 2010.

Toney, meanwhile, would fight only once more for a major heavyweight championship. In 2006 he took on reigning WBC champion Hasim Rahman and fought him to a majority draw, with two of the three judges scoring the bout even. He would go on to continue fighting until 2017, including a return to the cruiserweight division where he attempted to win the WBA championship (unsuccessfully), winning several fringe world championships along the way.

Undercard

Confirmed bouts: ^[8]

Winner	Loser	Weight division/title belt(s) disputed	Result
Vicente Mosquera	Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai	WBA World super feather title	Unanimous Decision.
Ray Austin	Larry Donald	vacant WBC–USNBC heavyweight title	Majority Decision Draw.
DaVarryl Williamson	Derrick Jefferson	WBC Continental Americas/WBO NABO Heavyweight titles	2nd-round TKO.
Non-TV bouts
Luis Alberto Pérez	Luis Bolano	IBF World super flyweight title	6th-round TKO.
Evans Ashira	Quentin Smith	Middleweight (10 rounds)	Unanimous Decision.
Israel Garcia	Andriy Oliynyk	Heavyweight (6 rounds)	Unanimous Decision.
Elio Rojas	Anthony Martinez	Featherweight (6 rounds)	Unanimous Decision.
Oleksandr Harashchenko	Elvir Muriqi	Light Heavyweight (6 rounds)	Split Decision.

Broadcasting

Country	Broadcaster
Canada	TSN
France	Canal+
Philippines	Solar Sports
United Kingdom	Sky Sports
United States	HBO

References

1. Ring Magazine (20 April 2005). "Ring's Pound for Pound Best and Division Ratings For Period Ending Apr 20, 05". doghouseboxing.com. Doghouse Boxing. Archived from the original on 23 April 2005. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
2. "John Ruiz vs. Andrew Golota". BoxRec. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
3. "James Toney vs. Evander Holyfield". BoxRec. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
4. "Toney vs. Ruiz Is a Fight for Title, Attention". Los Angeles Times . 30 April 2005. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
5. "Archived copy". ibf-usba-boxing.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
6. "John Ruiz vs. James Toney Round by Round Coverage - Boxing News". boxingscene.com. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
7. Sandomir, Richard (12 May 2005). "Toney Fails Drug Test and Is Stripped of Title". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
8. "BoxRec - event".

Preceded by vs. Andrew Golota	John Ruiz's bouts 30 April 2005	Succeeded by vs. Nikolai Valuev
Preceded by vs. Rydell Booker	James Toney's bouts 30 April 2005	Succeeded by vs. Dominick Guinn